Panasonic Has No Idea Why Your 3D TV Keeps Adding Phantom Channels

Josh really enjoys having a 3D television in his home, and spent a lot of money for the privilege. About six months after purchase, the set began adding phantom channels to his lineup. Not a catastrophic problem, but not a problem that’s easy to ignore when you dropped more than two grand on the TV set less than a year ago. But Josh is apparently the only one on the planet with this problem, and while Panasonic can’t figure out the cause, they’re not about to send Josh a new TV or even send someone out to his home to fix it, even though his service agreement states that’s sort of what they have to do.

I purchased a Panasonic TC-PVT25 50″ in November 2010 for $1995. I loved the television, it was amazing watching 3D movies at home. I even purchased two more 3D glasses at a cost of $200. This was not a cheap purchase!

However, around May of 2011 the TV was starting to have problems with the set adding channels to the lineup that I had deleted, even after I had removed the channels I did not want to watch, they would suddenly reappear in the lineup again and again. It’s not the worst problem in the world to have, I admit that, but when you spend this much money, it should work perfectly!

I contacted Panasonic Concierge customer service and they could not solve the problem after an hour on the phone with them. I was told that they would get back to me with an in-home inspection to see if they should replace the set (as promised in their Concierge Service). 4 weeks later, I had still not heard back from anyone at Panasonic regarding my defective TV.

I emailed and again heard no response, so I was able to find the email of a Concierge supervisor and emailed them directly. Still no answer… So I turned to Twitter (@panasonic – @panasonicdirect) to ask about the problems, they finally had one of their engineers contact me so I could walk him through the TV problems. After another hour on the phone, I was told this was an unheard of problem and they would get back to me with a solution.

There has been no solution, nor has there been any contact telling me that they are working on the problem. Panasonic has completely ignored me and ignored their own Concierge Service agreement by not sending a Technician to my home, not offering a loaner, and not being willing to replace my TV set.

I would be a loyal customer for life, due to the TV having an outstanding picture quality, despite the problems. It’s their absolute lack of customer service that has ruined the experience.